The Selling of a Plan

The United States Air Force sent Assistant Secretary William Anderson to Montana recently to sell the idea of a Coal to Liquid (CTL) plant at Malmstrom AFB. Before his present position, he worked for General Electric.

After reading his biography, it does not appear Mr. Anderson has ever served in the Air Force or any other branch of the military.

Back on September 7, I wrote about this idea when it was first reported. I said, “Thanks, but no thanks” to the proposal. I still feel the same if they use the land needed for the runway.

According to reports, the CTL plant, if built, will be owned and operated by a private company. The only thing the Air Force is doing is allowing them to build it on their land. There goes the tax money. The Air Force will be a customer.

Meeting the Movers and Shakers

Secretary Anderson met Wednesday with the movers and shakers in the state and community of Great Falls in a two hour “closed door” session. Ironically, nobody in the press complained about being closed out as they were given access to the Secretary after the meeting. From many of the reports I’ve read and from a few e-mails I’ve read from friends who follow defense issues like I do, it appears he may have sold the idea to these folks.

Secretary Anderson said the Congressional Delegation and the Governor are committed to the idea.

Secretary Anderson said the Air Force has no plans to reopen the runway at Malmstrom because it would cost many millions to reopen. One story a few weeks ago reported that they would have to permanently close the runway if the CTL plant is built.

One has to ask if some company will spend around a billion dollars to build a CTL plant, would some other company spend a few million to open the runway and use it?

Permanently closing the runway from ever being used again for any mission is the reason I feel Secretary Anderson’s idea goes down the drain.

If the CTL plant is built using some of the land needed for the runway, I believe in the next 10-15 years, Malmstrom will close. All that will be left is the CTL plant, and that will be privately owned. Maybe that is the Air Force’s goal any way?

If that happens, it looks like Great Falls will trade 5000 jobs at Malmstrom now, for possibly a few hundred that will be left to run the CTL plant. It may be time to plan on selling your home in Great Falls.

Don’t touch the runway

The best idea is not to use any area that would impact the runway. The Congressional Delegation and the movers and shakers should push for this. If they use part of the runway, which is still in decent condition compared to others that are still active, then Great Falls, Cascade County and Montana won’t have any bargaining tools for down the road when all the missiles are gone. The runway, support buildings, clear airspace and flying weather are great bargaining tools for private business, a new mission, or for the Air National Guard or Homeland Security. Sadly, the missile mission appears to be almost done for, as they have already started removing 50 missiles. The Congressional Delegation could not stop that, so that leads me to believe they won’t be able to stop more missiles from being taken. Montana is the weak link of all the missile states (Montana, Wyoming, and North Dakota). The Department of Defense will probably try to remove more of them to save money, or use some silly excuse (testing) like they did to take the first 50. The life expectancy for the current missiles is about 20-25 years down the road, anyway.

Of course, the CTL plant is only a plan. Plans change and there are hundreds, if not thousands, of steps along the way. Secretary Anderson, the salesman, will be long gone before the first shovel of dirt is turned.

But just in case that the Malmstrom CTL plant is built, the good folks in Great Falls should be able to see the Highwood Generating Station from it…if the wind is blowing in the right direction.